Yes, early elements of the game depend on you being in the right place at the right time. But you don't miss out on actions if you miss them initially. The game is constructed so that between each hour from 6am-24pm there are things to find, and wandering around the house at the 22-23pm mark are the least of your concerns haha. I suggest SAVING your game, then pulling up the map and forwarding each hour of each day to see where NPCs are each day and making note of it. Then restart from your save knowing where Mom, Ashley, Veronica, Amy, Sophia, etc are during weekdays and weekends, as it's pretty consistent--> Mom yoga 6am, breakfast 8am, Ash breakfast 9am, Veronica breakfast 10a, chores 12pm, Ash homework 5pm, etc etc etc. The groove can be a challenge, but once you see the pattern it's pretty straightforward apart from some random weekend events.